nado, to which our storms in this country are but the cry of an infant in comparison.

The new moon, to catch a glimpse of which every eye in Coulfo was on the stretch, was seen on Tuesday, the 8th of May, and her first appearance welcomed by a flourish of trumpets from the inhabitants. * This concluded the fast of the Rhamadan; and the following day was kept as a holiday for feasting and rejoicing by every individual in the place, amongst all classes, and of every sect and party,-thousands of both sexes from the neighbouring towns and villages flocking into it, in order to participate in the festivities and amusements of the occasion. Men and boys, old women and young maidens, slave and free, Mahomedan and Pagan, forgot all distinctions of rank, and differences in age and modes of worship, and joined in the song and the dance, drank palm-wine and booza together, and before the morning was well over, all hands became comfortably drunk. Groups of persons might be seen in the afternoon, rambling from one end of the town to the other; dancing, capering, tumbling, and hallooing, some reeling to and fro, scarcely able to stand, others insensible from excessive intoxication; some flung into the river by their boisterous companions, and dragged out again half drowned; some smiting their breasts, and calling upon the name of the Prophet; others hurrying about in every direction: fighting, praying, laughing, weeping; but all, from the governor and his ladies to the meanest bondsmen and slaves, all drunk in a greater or less degree.

'It was now inexpressibly-insufferably hot; not a single zephyr panted upon the motionless trees, and the intensity of the sun's rays threatened to set fire to the tenantless huts of the inhabitants. About five or six o'clock a sultry haze obscured the firmament, which dispersing some time afterwards, a solemn, fearful calm succeeded, and continued for an hour or two, the people still enjoying their noisy revelry, and loud bursts of merriment resounding from every quarter of the town. We, apprehensive of what was to come after, kept our eyes intently fixed on the eastern horizon, and at length espied a small dark cloud slowly rising from that quarter of the heavens. Immediately after the appearance of this object, faint flashes of lightning, and distant peals of thunder following, convinced us that a tornado was approaching. The people at last understanding these symptoms, all was hurry, bustle, and confusion, in a moment-the music and dancing suddenly ceased-the drunken became sober-a deep, wild, thrilling cry was raised by the women, and answered by screams of affright from the children and young persons. Meanwhile, the peals of thunder became infinitely louder and more appalling, and the lightning more intensely vivid than before; the clouds in the east gradually rolling towards the zenith in denser and heavier masses, a large portion of the heavens was presently clothed in almost midnight darkness, when the western horizon suddenly opened, and a sea of liquid fire flowing from that direction, added a sterner and yet more dreadful grandeur to the firmament, exposing by its yellowish glare all the horrors and blackness of the scene.

* A ceremony very similar to that which was formerly in use among the Jews, as may be seen by perusing the third verse of the 31st Psalm :"Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast-day.” ”

The sable curtain that overhung our heads, was rent asunder shortly after with a frightful explosion, causing the earth to tremble and shake as if the Almighty had set his foot upon the world, and reproached the people for their wickedness, while the shuddering war-cry, and the tumult and wailings of the multitude, mingling with the hollow blast of the tempest, produced on us an indescribable effect, and awoke in me an exalted, but painful and tremulous emotion of soul, that had nearly overpowered me.

To increase the consternation that was depicted on every countenance, the town of Bali, containing eleven hundred houses, and situated about half a mile from Coulfo, was set on fire by the lightning; and the piercing cries of its terrified inhabitants floating dismally into the latter town, were re-echoed by thousands of human voices, which produced a concert of melancholy sounds, that caused even the domestic animals to shrink with fear.

'The hurricane and rain at length ceased, the noise of the people was hushed into silence, and the tempestuous elements sank from horrid sublimity into their previous state of awful repose. I have witnessed many tornados in other parts of the globe;

"But never till that night, never till then,

Did I go through a tempest dropping fire."

Next morning I took a walk through the town, and in the country in its vicinity: the air, as it generally is after such visitations, was delightfully fresh and pleasant, but the earth was covered with afflicting proofs of the tremendous power of the storm; superb trees, through the trunks of which, if scooped out, a coach might easily pass, were torn up by the roots, and their gigantic branches shivered into splinters; whilst others were indeed standing, but scathed and blackened from the effects of the lightning, and entirely stripped of their verdant foliage; fragments and roofs of huts, many of them yet smouldering, were scattered in every direction: and here and there the dead body of a bird or beast, which had perished the preceding night, might be met with.

'The destitute inhabitants of Bali came to Coulfo, the day after their town had been reduced to ashes, to tell their simple tale of distress, and solicit the assistance of their more favoured neighbours. I was pleased to see their story listened to with tears, and their sorrowful condition ameliorated, with a benevolence and zeal that effectually covered the bad qualities of the people of Coulfo, and made me forget for a moment that they possessed any. In a conversation with one of the sufferers in the ill-fated town, I learned that several mothers had perished in the flames, while in the act of escaping from them with their tender offspring slung to their backs; and it was supposed that many of the male sex had shared in the like calamity, as they were missing; and no intelligence whatever had transpired respecting them. One individual, bowed down with years, had snatched up in his arms a little boy who was crossing his path, screaming with terror; but, just as he had reached the outskirts of the burning town, and was congratulating himself on his good fortune, in having preserved his own and the child's life so unexpectedly, a moving mass of fire, whirled by the wind, suddenly fell upon him, and both he and his charge were scorched to death, in sight of their sorrowing reiatives.

The town of Bali soon rose from its ruins, and the people, by their merriment and vivacity, seemed to forget, a month or two afterwards, that any such calamity had befallen it!'-vol. i. pp. 186--192.

Lander being a methodist, and perhaps not unmindful of the ambition of his sect to propagate their doctrines amongst the tribes of Africa, seems to have paid great attention to their religious notions. These, we already know, are divided between Mahomedanism and Paganism. Sometimes the two faiths are found so nicely blended together, that it is difficult to know in what part of the devotee's doctrine one begins, and the other disappears. It appears, however, that in their practice, the Islamite is not difficult to be distinguished from the Idolater.

Those who profess the Mahomedan religion amongst the Negroes, are as ignorant and superstitious as their idolatrous brethren: nor does it appear that their having adopted a new creed has either improved their manners, or bettered their state and condition in life. On the contrary, I have generally found the followers of the Prophet to be less hospitable to strangers, less kind to each other, and infinitely more mischievous and wicked than the heathen portions of the community, whom they, whimsically enough, affect to despise as rude barbarians, although their claims to superior intelligence are grounded simply on the oral communications of the principles of the Koran, received, from time to time, from the wandering Moors and Arabs, or from traditionary legends of their country. The artful Arabian, however, withholds from them a full half of the little he himself may be acquainted with, taking care to teach them no more than is absolutely necessary to promote his own views, and enlarge his own interests. The Mahomedan Negroes go through their ablutions regularly, and when water is not to be obtained, make use of sand, as the Koran enjoins. The Fuaricks, or "Bereberes," (Children of the Desert,) adopt the latter method on all occasions, the trouble of applying water, even when they have abundance within their reach, being irksome and unpleasant for them.

The Falatahs, who profess Islamism, understand and make use of a few Arabic prayers, but the Negro that can utter so long a sentence as :La illah el Allah rasoul allahi!" (There is but one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet,) is styled mallam, or learned, and is regarded with looks of respect and reverence by his less intelligent countrymen. These mallams are scattered in great numbers over the country, and procure an easy and respectable subsistence by making fetishes, or writing charms on bits of wood, which are washed off carefully into a bason and drunk with avidity by the credulous multitude, who consider the dirty water used in the operation as a panacea for every disease and affliction. As the office of mallam, which answers to that of priest in Catholic countries, is one of great sanctity as well as considerable emolument, every one burns with impatience to get initiated into its sacred mysteries, and enjoy a like comfortable and indolent life as the mallams themselves, for a learned man never toils or spins, but is bountifully fed, and pampered in luxury by his lay countrymen. Every caravan is furnished with one or more of these corpulent drones, who loll at their ease, while their employers are at the same time, perhaps, actually killing themselves with over-exertion.

Few of the Negroes can articulate in Arabic more than the word "Allah," or "Bismillah," believing that the frequent repetition of the former of these expressions can absolve them from all sin, without any

further demonstration of their zeal and sincerity. Even after the committal of a capital offence, should the criminal be almost immediately executed, and "Allah!" is heard to tremble on his closing lips, the multitude firmly believe that his soul will inevitably be conveyed to the third Heaven, and be happy for evermore.

'Swarms of sheriffs, or emirs, the real or fictitious descendants of Mohammed and Ali, have crossed the desert, and practise their disgraceful impositions to so great an extent, that the eyes of the natives are partially opened to their chicanery, and they are often regarded as characters with whom it would be dangerous to meddle.'-vol. i. pp. 273-276.

The Mahomedan faith is making such rapid strides, however, in central and western Africa, that in Lander's opinion, in a generation or two, Paganism will be altogether unknown in the land.

Of the laws which our author observed in operation, he gives the following summary.

In several of the Pagan countries of the interior of Africa, having no written code, the natives appoint elders to administer justice, at the head of whom the king, or chief, generally presides. In petty cases, such as trifling assaults and other misdemeanors, the parties concerned compromise the matter, without referring it to the general assembly. In Badagry, the fetish-priests are the sole judges of the people, and the statutes of their country, like those of the Druids, are recorded in their own breasts only, consequently they are mostly swayed in their decisions by interest, or influenced by prejudice and passion; but in no instance are they murmured against by either plaintiff or defendant.

Murder, adultery, and theft, are the most general crimes, and in many African countries are punishable with death, banishment, or perpetual imprisonment. In Yariba and Nyffe, the relations of a murdered man may, and often do, accept of a sum of money, named by them, from the criminal, which is considered equivalent to corporal punishment. In Badagry, Borghoo, and Houssa, however, an individual guilty of slaying a free man, if apprehended, instantly loses his life, and his body is left to be devoured by vultures.

In cases of adultery, the injured husband is at liberty to do what he pleases with his unfaithful partner, even to the taking away her life; and if her seducer has not money enough at his disposal to satisfy the former for the loss of his honour, the same punishment may be inflicted upon him also. The extreme rigor of the laws on this head, occasions instances of adultery to be exceedingly rare in every other country but Borghoo, where the punishment attending it being infinitely less rigidly exacted, the offence is more generally prevalent.

Theft, in Nyffé, is punished by imprisonment of the party or parties; and in all aggravated cases the criminal is confined in irons, in a large gloomy dungeon, for a given number of years, where he is compelled to labour in various avocations, till the expiration of the term expressed in his sentence. In Yariba the crime of stealing, owing to the dreadful severity of punishment that awaits delinquents, is by no means common among the people. Free men, found guilty of larceny, are operated upon, and retained by the king, or his chiefs, as guardians for their numerous wives. In this state they are equal in value to five prime slaves; and it

makes no difference if the chief be the father of a large family, or the husband of many females, and respectable as to wealth and connections. the sentence is on all occasions rigorously enforced. Those who effect robberies of greater magnitude, or burglaries (if free men), are chastised in the same singular manner, after which the tattoo mark of their country is cancelled (consisting simply of having the face cut and gashed in a thousand places), that of another nation substituted, and when partially recovered from the effects of the wounds, the miserable wretches are driven, like beasts, to the sea-coast, and sold into perpetual slavery. Slaves guilty of thefts, or indeed of almost any other crime, are uniformly decapitated in Yariba, without the benefit of trial; whereas all free men are judged impartially by the elders of the people in the hearing of the king, in the palàver-house, or hall of council.

Yarro, ruler of Khiama, a province of Borghoo, encourages theft, by appropriating part of the stolen property to his own use, which is generally presented to him by the robber in person; but if an individual, after being successful in a depredation, forgets or refuses to tender the accustomed portion of the spoil to his sovereign, he is immediately beheaded, and the whole of his property falls to the king. On my return to that country, I was informed by several of the natives, that as soon as their prince heard of our approaching his territories from Yariba, he caused a proclamation to be issued in every town through which we were expected to pass, prohibiting the inhabitants from stealing even a needle from the white men, and threatening with death every one that infringed this law. To this wholesome and timely declaration of Yarro I attribute the great respect in which our persons were held by the multitude, and the reverence with which they regarded our property and effects.

In Yariba and Borghoo, as well as in several other countries, when women find themselves enceintes, they must immediately inform their husbands of the circumstance; or in attempt at concealment, are publicly flogged. The same punishment is also inflicted on females who are known to associate with the other sex before the expiration of three years after the birth of an infant, that being the period mothers are obliged to suckle their offspring.'-vol. i. pp. 281–285.

The author's account of the songs and music of the Africans, does him great credit; his translations, it will be observed, are even touched by a ray of poetry.

'If the character of a nation may be judged of by its songs, the Africans undoubtedly would be pronounced as the boldest and most martial, as well as the most amorous people, on the face of the globe. Their strains breathe nothing but love and war, and contempt of death; but their conduct, instead of corresponding with such lofty ideas, is the most pusillanimous imaginable, scarcely one amongst them ever evincing a solitary trait of true courage or resolution. Of all figures of speech, they most delight in the use of the "apostrophe;" and it is not uncommon, even but a single day after a defeat, to hear them calling aloud on the names of their absent adversaries, and bestowing upon them all manner of cowardly and reproachful epithets.

"Our enemies tremble and are dismayed when they hear of our approach," sing the people of Yariba; "and at sight of our arrows they